On the Grid

You may have seen via facebook, but we now have electricity at our house!

The short story is that Eric talked with a friend on Sunday and he told him how he had visited the Chef de Technique (Boss over Technicians) and pleaded his case with him. He suggested that we do the same (it was successful for him).

So, we went to visit him at the electric company yesterday and took all the kids (dressed up and looking cute and warned to be well behaved and charming!). We simply told him we had been waiting for 2 weeks and that we were paying rent in 2 places and that Eric's office was in another part of town (close to our house that didn't have a meter). He took our order out of a notebook (which had about 200-300 other orders in front of it- Eric says more than that!) and handed it to the next technician who walked into the office. He said he would see what he could do.

Eric got a call at about 4pm yesterday afternoon and met the technician at our house to install an electric meter. Six hours after meeting the Chef de Technique, we're now hooked up to the grid!

The short answer as to why this is a big deal is that there's a shortage of electric meters here right now. There aren't enough to go around, so there are so many people waiting. Frankly, if everyone who asked for one got one, there would be too many people on the grid to support it. And, we're so thankful. We have a friend who had been waiting 6 months for a meter and just got it last week.

It's a crazy thing, this experience. It solidifies how important relationships are in this culture. Things just get done in a different way. We didn't offer this man anything for his services. Just pleaded our case and asked him to help us. And, he did. We'll probably visit him later today or tomorrow, at the latest. I'm planning on baking something to say thanks. :) And, we will have to visit him later to keep the relationship going.

I was struck by Malachi's prayer last night.

Dear God, thank you for our electricity. Please help all those people waiting who didn't get one today like we did to be patient. And help them get a meter soon.

It was a good reminder, from the mouth of a child, to not only be thankful, but to remember that, in God's graciousness to us, there are others who are wanting.